Catering business, bar to take over Oak Creek space

Steamboat Springs  The space that once housed the Black Mountain Tavern in Oak Creek yet again will be reincarnated. This time, resident Lawrence Jaconetta plans to lease the space at 202 S. Sharp St. as a home for his catering business and the future home of a new happy hour bar.

At its semimonthly meeting Thursday, the Oak Creek Town Board approved, 6-0, the application for the beer and wine license for that space.

After 30 days of posting, the town will hold a public hearing on the license.

Jaconetta, a former Town Board member and owner of the taco stand Lupita’s, plans to move his catering business, Local Flavor, into the kitchen and open a happy hour bar in the front called Circle R Bar. He’s in no rush, he said at the meeting, and likely won’t open the bar until February.

“My catering company has been transient for sometime,” he said. “So after watching people come in and out of the building, I’ve always kind of wanted the space.”

It was nostalgia that led him into the new business venture of opening a bar.

“Some of my fondest memories of the Black Mountain Tavern were happy hour and having a beer,” he said.

He might offer a few menu items, as well.

Since the tavern closed in 2009, the building has housed the Mountain Market and Munchies. Both businesses since have closed.

“We want to have a lot of recycled stuff and artwork,” Jaconetta said about the new bar. “I don’t expect it to make money. But I think it can carry itself.”

Jaconetta said he is signing a two-year lease on the space with landlord Scott Church and has been working with the health department to make sure the kitchen is up to code.

“I don’t plan on doing too much to the place, just lipstick and nail polish,” he said.

In other action

■ The Town Board also discussed the schedule of the new water tank project, which could be altered after general contractor K.R. Swerdfeger notified the town Oct. 20 that it wanted to suspend the project for winter.

Project engineer Richard “Jethro” Sterling said the contractor knew during the bidding the process that it was expected to work through the winter, but K.R. Swerdfeger cited safety as a reason it want to suspend the project.

“There is less risk and that’s what they generally indicated in the letter,” Sterling said.

He plans to meet with the town’s Public Works director and other representatives from the project in the coming weeks and make a final recommendation to the board about whether to allow the stoppage.

■ The board discussed a provision in the town’s land-use code that prevents mobile-home owners outside mobile home parks from upgrading to newer trailers. The ordinance requires them to replace trailers with fixed-foundation homes. The board set a work session with the Oak Creek Planning Commission on Nov. 16 to discuss the mater.